


Responsibility Is Not Just Using Your Powers For Good

by TastyBrownies



Series: Peter Has No Sense of Self-Preservation [2]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt Peter, Peter is dumb, Peter is irresponsible when it comes to people who are worried about him, Tony Stark Has A Heart, mentions of Ned Leeds, the Peter I write has low self esteem and I'm sticking with that to the end of my days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 15:16:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11649240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TastyBrownies/pseuds/TastyBrownies
Summary: Peter needs to learn that being responsible doesn't just mean keeping the city safe - he has a responsibility to his family, too.





	Responsibility Is Not Just Using Your Powers For Good

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to "Hurt Little Spider", where Peter was tortured and severely injured, only to be found and brought back to health by Tony.  
> At first, when I wrote "Hurt Little Spider", I didn't think about writing a sequel, but some people in the comments pointed out that I definitely left a few openings for that, so here it is! Hope I didn't disappoint :D

Peter was thrumming with nervous energy.

He knew Mr. Stark wanted him to “stay in bed and heal properly”, but on top of missing school, homework and team meetings for the Academic Decathlon, he couldn’t be Spider-Man when he was stuck in a bed like this. And besides, staring at the same four walls for a couple of days straight was _boring_.

The point is, Peter was going a bit crazy locked up like that. So, the next time Happy came to visit, he asked when he could go back home.

“Doctor says that with your accelerated healing you should be good to go in a few days’ time.”

“A few _days?!_ ” Peter almost choked on the water he was drinking. “That’s- That can’t be right! I have to get back home, I have school, and Aunt May is gonna be so worried, I can’t stay here!” He was slightly panicked, he knew, but he thought he was entitled to panic in a world shattering situation such as this.

“Listen, kid, you seriously need to rest up. You were hurt, badly. Let yourself heal right. It’s just a couple of days.” Happy probably tried for a soothing tone, but Peter thought it was more likely that he was just getting on Happy’s nerves. He sighed and ate his lunch quietly after that, thinking to himself.

Mr. Stark didn’t come to visit after that first time when Peter had just woken up. Maybe he still felt guilty. Or maybe he was just busy. He was probably just busy, Peter reasoned, because there was no way he could still feel guilty about Peter. He was just _Peter_ , after all, not something actually important. Now that he was thinking about it, Mr. Stark was probably worried about Captain America, and that’s what’s been keeping him busy. Yeah, that made _way_ more sense than worrying about _Peter_.

He sighed. He was probably just a nuisance to Mr. Stark in this state. And besides, he didn’t really want to be cooped up like that anymore. Which is why getting out seemed like the perfect solution.

Admittedly, he probably should have told someone he was going, but he got the feeling his doctor wouldn’t be too happy about it, so he decided to just sneak out. Surely, nobody would notice, right? Some tiny part of Peter hoped somebody _would_ notice, just because that would mean they cared. But that was selfish, and stupid, so Peter shoved those thoughts deep down where they wouldn’t resurface.

He took the subway home, glad to be one step closer to swinging freely in the city. His wrists still hurt a little, but he doubted that was going to stop him. His breathing felt fine, the burns on his calf still hurt, but it wasn’t all that bad, and the stab wound in his abdomen was almost completely healed, so all in all, he was good to go! That’s what healing factors were for, right?

He pulled out his phone, wanting to call May, but it was dead. He shrugged and put it back in his pocket, hoping she wouldn’t be too mad at him.

He got home when it was already dark. He couldn’t _wait_ to put the suit on and go swinging. He unlocked the door to his house, excited, when he suddenly remembered.

_Aunt May._

He had to tell her – something. He didn’t know what, but…

“Aunt May? I’m- I’m home.” He called, cringing in preparation for the yelling.

“Peter?” A small voice called instead. He walked to the living room, finding her curled up on the sofa, eyes red-rimmed and face tear-streaked. Regret settled heavy in his stomach.

“I-“

“Don’t you ever do that to me again.” She started quietly. “Do you hear me? Never again, Peter. You can’t- not after everything- I can’t lose-“

He ran to her and engulfed her in a hug as she broke down, sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Aunt May. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He said, stroking her hair and trying to calm her down.

Going out to the city could wait. He couldn’t leave May. Not like this.

The next morning – Saturday -  he decided he would try to catch up on school. At least in the morning. Only at night, when he could hear May sleeping, did he dare to go out again.

He barely managed to do anything before an Iron Man suit caught up to him.

He blanched.

What did he do wrong this time? Maybe the suit was just on reconnaissance mode, Peter thought, hopefully.

“Oh, hey, Mr. Stark.” He tried to sound nonchalant. The suit opened to reveal Tony inside, just like on the pier that day. Peter gulped. He had not expected Tony to physically be there. He walked towards Peter, glaring.

“Don’t you ‘hey Mr. Stark’ me. You ran away from a _perfectly safe_ and might I add _thoroughly entertaining_ medical facility. What the hell?” He sounded angry. Peter swallowed.

“Like I said, my healing factor took care-“

“Your healing factor won’t save you if you lose consciousness, bleeding out in a ditch!” He yelled, then exhaled, as if to calm himself down. For some reason, Peter felt his eyes welling up. “You know something funny? When I made that suit, I put _everything_ in it, right? I put a tracker, I put a heater, I put everything you could think of. _Everything._ So, when you said that that _torture session_ was a ‘little worse than usual’, I thought, maybe he’s exaggerating. Maybe, he’s trying to make me feel better in some weird, teenager-brain way. You know why? Because I remembered installing an injury alert in your suit.” He paused, his eyes judging Peter. Peter flushed red. “But I know that I can be a piece of shit sometimes and I know that I can get so caught up in a project that I forget the obvious things, so I go back to the original programming of the suit and I check. And then I double check, and triple check, and quadruple check, and then check about three more times just to be safe,” Peter felt guilt curling around his lungs, “And you know what I find? Not only did you decide it was a good idea to ditch the tracker, you also shut off the injury alert.” Mr. Stark was breathing hard at this point. “Now, I’m not saying that it isn’t some impressive programming that you did there, because it is-“

“Actually, that was my friend Ned. He’s really good with all the programming stuff.” Peter’s speech slowed as Mr. Stark shot him an unimpressed glare.

“You can’t _do_ that. You _can’t_ , alright?”

“I don’t- I’m not sure I’m following, Mr. Stark.”

“When I brought you to Germ-“ He cut himself off with a sigh. He tended to do that a lot next to Peter. “I can’t keep you from going out there every night. But you’re still a kid, so the _least_ I could do is try to offer you some backup. A safety net, so that when you’re in too deep I can pull you out. And you took even _that_ away from me. You can’t do that, Peter.”

 “I’m sorry.” Peter said in a small voice.

“I don’t need ‘sorry’. I need ‘I’ll do better’. I need ‘from now on I’ll report any grievous injuries. Or any injuries, at all’. I need ‘I’m going to stop acting like a kid’-“

“But you’re the one treating me like a kid!” Peter exploded, then immediately caught himself. “I’m sorry, Mr. Stark, I just, I can handle myself, alright? Yes, I’ve been injured before, but I can take care of myself! I don’t need to take up space in your medical facility because I don’t need it.” He tried to reason, voice getting weaker the more he talked.

“You shouldn’t have to deal with that on your own.” Mr. Stark said, determined. “You didn’t answer my question, the other day. What’s the usual for you?”

“What does it matter? The point is I’m fine-“

“No, the point is to _keep you_ fine.” He said, though Peter felt like he wanted to say alive, not fine. “I’m making a medical record. For the future, I need to know what your healing factor can and can’t deal with, so that we’re prepared.”

“Prepared for wh-“

“For the next time an asshole like Octavious decides to have a field day with your genetics.” He snapped.

“But that doesn’t happen so o-“

“It only needs to happen one more time. Don’t you get that? You have an aunt at home, who is scared out of her mind for you. She’s waiting, every night, waiting for you to come home. And you can’t not come home. You can’t.” the ‘not again’ floated in the air between them.

All the fight left Peter in one long exhale.

“Bruised or broken ribs, usually when there’s a big guy like the Lizard. The longest it ever took them to heal was a week. Big guys like that also like to grab my wrists, so they were sprained a number of times. Takes a day or three to heal. Burns – I get them when I help firemen - don’t take long to heal at all, depending on the severity. Broken nose takes a few hours at most. Same as minor contusions, like a black eye. Gashes and open wounds take a couple of hours to a day, depending on their severity. I get a concussion probably every couple of weeks, when a douchebag villain decides to throw me around. Takes a couple of days to heal.”

Mr. Stark got paler and paler the more Peter talked. Peter swallowed thickly.

“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Don’t turn off the alert, or the tracker.” Even though he cleared his throat, his voice was still raspy.

“Mr. Stark, I’m-“

“Don’t apologize. Honestly, I’m sick of hearing it. Just do what I asked you to.” And with that, he got into his suit and flew away.

Peter knew he should feel happy to have Tony offer him backup, but the only thing he could feel was guilt and regret, sitting like a lump of lead at the bottom of his stomach and at the base of his throat. He felt more like a little kid than ever before.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, as well as criticism - just try to be gentle, I am fragile ^^  
> [ Buy me a coffee :) ](https://ko-fi.com/tastybrownies)


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